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News Release Information

23-1369-ATL
Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (404) 893-4220

Occupational Employment and Wages in Lexington-Fayette — May 2022

Workers in the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $25.56 in May 2022, 14 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal, management, and sales and related. Production was the only group to have a significantly higher wage than its respective national average.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Lexington area employment was more highly concentrated in 7 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, healthcare practitioners and technical, and food preparation and serving related. Ten groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including business and financial operations, educational instruction and library, and computer and mathematical. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Lexington metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage ($)
United StatesLexingtonUnited StatesLexingtonPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.029.7625.56*-14

Management

6.76.1*63.0850.22*-20

Business and financial operations

6.54.6*41.3935.55*-14

Computer and mathematical

3.42.3*51.9937.93*-27

Architecture and engineering

1.71.845.5237.67*-17

Life, physical, and social science

0.91.1*40.2131.49*-22

Community and social service

1.61.7*26.8124.79*-8

Legal

0.80.7*59.8741.56*-31

Educational instruction and library

5.74.6*30.4126.40*-13

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.41.2*36.7826.50*-28

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.18.4*46.5241.30*-11

Healthcare support

4.63.7*17.1017.150

Protective service

2.32.425.9719.93*-23

Food preparation and serving related

8.59.4*15.4513.58*-12

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.8*17.2615.28*-11

Personal care and service

1.92.7*17.4114.74*-15

Sales and related

8.98.1*24.2220.93*-14

Office and administrative support

12.612.821.9019.96*-9

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.418.2117.72-3

Construction and extraction

4.13.3*28.0825.15*-10

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.93.926.7725.82*-4

Production

5.98.7*21.8123.62*8

Transportation and material moving

9.29.6*21.1219.76*-6

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Lexington had 23,310 jobs in production, accounting for 8.7 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.62, significantly above the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (6,190), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,800), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,680). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and also tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $34.76 and $32.20, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.41) and sewing machine operators ($14.53). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30460.htm.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Lexington area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, tool and die makers were employed at 2.8 times the national rate in Lexington, and miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators, at 2.4 times the U.S. average. Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders had a location quotient of 1.1 in Lexington, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Kentucky Department for Workforce Investment.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area included 2,297 establishments with a response rate of 62 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Bourbon County, Clark County, Fayette County, Jessamine County, Scott County, and Woodford County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Lexington metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages ($)
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

23,3101.523.6249,130

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

1,8001.534.7672,310

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

4600.920.9043,470

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

6,1902.422.6047,010

Bakers

1200.316.0733,420

Butchers and meat cutters

1900.816.6334,600

Food batchmakers

1500.517.5136,420

Food processing workers, all other

400.516.8435,020

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

7602.321.3444,390

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

600.519.5240,600

Machinists

3500.624.4650,880

Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

4001.318.4238,320

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

2300.920.6442,920

Tool and die makers

3102.832.2066,970

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

5100.723.1448,120

Prepress technicians and workers

701.619.5240,600

Printing press operators

3401.218.8039,110

Print binding and finishing workers

801.221.0043,670

Laundry and dry-cleaning workers

4301.312.4125,800

Sewing machine operators

2401.114.5330,220

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

800.520.1141,830

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

1700.823.6249,130

Chemical equipment operators and tenders

1600.822.5346,860

Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

1401.522.7047,210

Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters, operators, and tenders

400.916.8635,070

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1700.920.9043,480

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

700.822.5346,860

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

400.417.4336,260

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

1,6801.623.4748,820

Dental laboratory technicians

601.027.6657,540

Ophthalmic laboratory technicians

501.416.0533,380

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

7001.117.9537,340

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

1000.623.9549,810

Helpers--production workers

2700.816.9835,310

Production workers, all other

1,3703.017.2635,900

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_30460.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.
(3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.
(4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a 'year-round, full-time' hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.

 

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2023